It's horrible. Michel Aflaq, another graduate of the Sorbonne - that French institution has turned a lot of men to the dark side hasn't it? - established the Baathist ideology.
I suspect that when Aflak attended the Sorbonne it was run by anti-colonial Leftists. After WWII the Left had a great deal of influence in France because it was prominent in the Resistance. The Right was discredited because many of them sided with the Vichyites.